Associations between age, cytogenetics, FLT3-ITD, and marrow leukemia cells identified by flow cytometry

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the relationships between age, cytogenetic subgroups, molecular markers, and cells with leukemic aberrant immunophenotype in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the correlations between age, cytogenetic subgroups (normal, balanced and unbalance karyotype), molecular mutations (NPM1, FLT3-ITD, and CEBPA mutations) and marrow leukemia cells (LC) identified by flow cytometry in 256 patients with de novo AML.

Results: From age group 10-19 years to age group ≥ 60 years, the percentage of LC decreased from 67.0 ± 18.4% to 49.0 ± 25.1% (F = 2.353, P = 0.041). LC percentage was higher in patients with balanced karyotypes (65.7 ± 22.4%), than those with unbalanced karyotypes (46.0 ± 26.6%) (u = 3.444, P = 0.001) or a normal karyotype (49.9 ± 22.1%) (u = 5.093, P < 0.001). Patients with FLT3-ITD (64.3 ± 19.5%) had higher LC percentages compared with those without (54.2 ± 24.3%) (u = 2.794, P = 0.007).

Conclusions: Associations between age, cytogenetics, molecular markers, and marrow leukemia cells may offer beneficial information to understand the biology and pathogenesis of AML.